Diplomats should abide by code of ethics
It is lamentable to see that more and more Korean diplomats have little sense of ethics these days. They must have forgotten their mission of representing the government and the people abroad. Furthermore, they are too lax in discipline to properly perform their duty.
One of such unabashed diplomats is an ambassador to Ivory Coast who just returned home after serving in the African country. He is now under investigation over his alleged attempt to smuggle in 16 tusks hidden in his belongings. Officials of the Korea Customs Service confiscated the banned goods and reported the case to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Of course, the smuggling bid by the ambassador, identified as Park, is illegal. His act is in violation of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Certainly, he knows the convention better than anyone else because he was Seoul’s envoy to the Ivory Coast, once a foothold of the ivory trade.
It is absurd for him to claim he did not know that the tusks were mixed with his belongings. Was it possible for him not to notice the items which reportedly weigh 60 kilograms with their value estimated at about 100 million won ($92,500)? He should no longer try to justify his smuggling scheme.
Park only said he received the tusks as presents from some officials of Ivory Coast. It would have been better not to accept such banned goods. Once he took them, he should have reported them to the government. But he didn’t. Apparently he violated the code of ethics.
Park should be subject to stern punishment. His shameful behavior also must be dealt with not as an isolated case of personal wrongdoing but as a structural problem of slackened discipline among diplomats. The case came after a sex scandal between three Korean consuls and a 33-year-old Chinese woman in Shanghai that was made public in March.
The scandal revealed how the Korean diplomats gave up on their moral integrity and sought personal desire. In return for extramarital affairs, they handed over documents, including the contact information of 200 senior officials and politicians and visa issuance records to the female visa broker. A large number of diplomats have already been accused of appropriating budgets at their missions.
Such misdeeds were the direct result of the ministry’s inability to ensure discipline among diplomats. Last year then-Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yu Myung-hwan resigned over an employment favor scandal involving his daughter who was hired by the ministry. His successor, Kim Sung-hwan, has vowed to strictly apply the code of ethics but to little avail. Now Minister Kim and the government should take bolder action to make diplomats have higher standards of ethics.
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